Really Nice Images 4.0 Preview

Really Nice Images has just released version 4.0 of their RNI All Films Pack. It’s priced at 122 USD and existing subscribers get an email with a half-price offer to upgrade! (If you didn’t get your upgrade offer, check out this page.) RNI now offers the All Films pack in Pro and Lite versions. The Pro version gets you everything, while the Lite version gives a smaller selection of presets at a much lower price of 59USD.

I have been using RNI All Films 3.0 and like it a lot. You can find my review of it and sample images here. I just purchased the new 4.0 upgrade yesterday, and hopefully will be able to do a review next month after I had a chance to create some new images with it. If you are new to RNI, I recommend getting the Pro version since that gets you all presets and features at just about 60 USD more than the Lite version. The Lite version is friendly for those who are slightly tight on cash or just hesitant about paying more than a hundred dollars for a product that does not have a trial version. The good news is that RNI also offers an upgrade price to those who bought the Lite version! However I am not sure of the exact pricing details, so don’t hate me if the total price for Lite + Pro upgrade turns out higher than if you just bought Pro in the first place.

What’s New

You can find the full list of improvements in the official product page, but there are some changes that stand out and have an immediate positive effect on my user experience after one evening of experimentation:

+ New Jpeg Compensation Option
A new Jpeg compensation preset reduces the contrast and brightness of images. This is for users who wants to use RNI for Jpeg images, as opposed to RAW files. This would compensate for images becoming too bright or contrasty when presets are applied to OOC Jpegs.

+ Better naming of presets for easier organization
Presets now get a numerical value appended to their names so they are easier to parse. This is a welcome usability improvement.

+ Lens softness effect is disabled by default
Now instant and vintage film presets do not implement the lens softness effect by default. Wedding and portrait photographers may treasure the character of film, but the softening and blurring of details may not be necessary all the time. Disabling this by default is another great usability improvement.

+ RNI Film Essentials upgraded to RNI Toolkit

The Film Essentials presets have been re-organized and renamed to RNI Toolkit. The presets are now better organized, better named, and simply more useful than ever.

+ New camera profiles for Lightroom

RNI 4.0 introduces new Lightroom camera profiles for different cameras! These will provide a different colour profile for different camera models. I don’t use this since I use capture NX-D for RAW conversion, but these could be interesting to users who prefer to only use Lightroom.

In addition to these improvements, there are also some new presets. The existing presets should have undergone some subtle modifications and grain simulation should be improved. Initial impressions are positive, and as mentioned earlier I will get a review out when I have enough images processed with RNI 4.0 that I am satisfied with. This could take a while, as I am actually currently working on a large number of images that I find to be inappropriate for film simulation. Maybe I can get the review out by August, or September. – WY